Olly Mann and The Week delve behind the headlines and debate what really matters from the past seven days. With Mariana Vieira, Arion McNicoll and Leaf Arbuthnot.
In this week’s episode, we discuss:
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South Africa terror alert
When the US issued a warning about the threat of a terrorist attack in the Sandton area of Johannesburg last weekend, it seemed to take the South African government by surprise. The alert coincided with the country’s pride march, which was due to pass through the neighbourhood in question – and which went ahead without incident. The US has declined to provide any more detail about what it thought might happen or why. So is this a helpful way to disseminate intelligence?
Ticket prices
Despite the pervasive cost-of-living crisis, one part of the economy which seems to be immune to the slump in consumer confidence: concert tickets, especially those sold at vast mark-ups by touts. In one particularly extreme example, tickets for Adele’s sold-out residency in Las Vegas have been changing hands for £40,000 – more than 30 times their face value. Elsewhere, even the official ticket costs at Glastonbury have prompted complaints after a rise of more than 20% on last year. What is causing these spiralling prices?
Words of the year
Collins dictionary has unveiled what it believes is the word that sums up 2022: permacrisis. Has this year really been more crisis-ridden than others in living memory? And can any year be summed up in just one word. We survey what other countries have nominated as their recent words of the year and consider which recent choices have stood the test of time.
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How China is battling the chikungunya virusUnder The Radar Thousands of cases of the debilitating disease have been found in the country
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Deep thoughts: AI shows its math chopsFeature Google's Gemini is the first AI system to win gold at the International Mathematical Olympiad
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Book reviews: 'Face With Tears of Joy: A Natural History of Emoji' and 'Blood Harmony: The Everly Brothers Story'Feature The surprising history of emojis and the brother duo who changed pop music
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Blast at political rally in Pakistan kills 43, wounds 200Speed Read
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Potential poisoning and succession posturing for South Africa’s Zulu kingfeature Conflicting reports over king’s health highlight ongoing bitter power struggles
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Conditions at Guantanamo Bay inhumane and cruel, UN investigator saysSpeed Read
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The Week Unwrapped: Korean succession, terror by algorithm and German disquietpodcast Could a 10-year-old girl rule North Korea? Will an Isis victim upend web law? And why is Germany upset with its Oscars contender?
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The Week Unwrapped: Chinese chips, the Pope in Africa and podcastingpodcast Is China losing the microchip war? What is the Vatican doing in South Sudan? And has the podcast tide turned?
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Pair charged in alleged neo-Nazi plot to 'completely destroy' Baltimore by bringing down power gridSpeed Read
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Pervez Musharraf, ruler of Pakistan during war on terror, dies at 79Speed Read
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The Week Unwrapped: Sex and health, the Earth’s core and another new yearpodcast Is the NHS failing British women? What’s going on at the centre of our planet? And what’s in a date?
